GRUESOME: Karamchand’s (inset) body was recovered from a canal in the village

THE WICKED and bloodsoaked feudal system of poor Dalits working for the rich upper caste — and getting tortured and killed if they refuse — is very much alive in Uttar Pradesh’s underbelly.
The Dalit villagers of Nirgajani in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district were reminded on Monday about the dreadful “ begari system” — working in the fields of the affluent without wages.
Affluent villagers shot dead Karamchand ( 42) and took out a gruesome procession of his body on a bicycle to intimidate and remind poor Dalits about their fate if they refused to work in the fields of the rich.
After their macabre dance of death, they threw his body into a canal.
They also assaulted Karamchand’s son Monu when he tried to save his father.
All this took place under the Bhopa police station and in a state where the chief minister, Mayawati, takes pride in her Dalit antecedents.
The killers escaped from the village when Monu was admitted to the district government hospital and a case was registered by the police.
Karamchand and Monu were working in their own field when Amresh, Dhanpal and Ramesh Singh, all landed Jats belonging to the same family, reached the area along with over 10 people and demanded they stop work immediately to help them in harvesting wheat.
The Dalit farmer had earlier raised his voice against begari too.
“ My father had refused them earlier because they didn’t pay him anything for earlier work. They had declared that we would have to follow their order or leave the village,” Monu said.
When Karamchand put his foot down and refused to work, the trio attacked him.
Desperate to escape, he climbed the roof of a temple in the village. But Amresh, a hardened criminal, according to the police, fired at him, causing his death.
“ They hauled his dead body on to a bicycle and took out a procession. They were shouting that anyone who defied their order would be killed,” Monu said, recalling the horrifying moments.
“ I pleaded with them to give me the body of my husband,” Rajesh Kumari, Karamchand’s wife said. “ But they kept laughing.” Karamchand’s body was later found in a canal by the police.
Unable to make him bend to their will, the Jats had found other ways of harassing him. “ The rich people had taken over a part of our land.
They were angry with my husband for the last 10 years for protesting against begari.
I had begged my husband to stop making enemies of them,” Kumari said.
Muzaffarnagar SP K. B. Singh said Karamchand’s body had been fished out of the canal and sent for post mortem.
“ According to our initial investigation, he was shot dead when he refused to follow the orders of some criminals in the village. All the killers belong to the same family. While five persons have been arrested, 12 are still absconding,” he said.VICIOUS SYSTEM OF BONDED LABOURBegar or begari was a widely prevalent system of bonded labour in rural India in the medieval period. It could be compulsory or forced labour at a very low wage, or free menial labour.
This included carting heavy luggage for rich people or working in the fields of powerful villagers at the cost of neglecting one’s own crops.
It was abolished by the government of India in 1976.http://mohallalive.com/2011/04/29/dalit-killed-and-body-paraded-in-maya-s-up/